Teravainen shaping up as another rising Blackhawks star

In Teuvo Teravainen, the Blackhawks appear to have another star on the horizon.

Teravainen finished with a tournament-best 15 points in seven games, including 3 assists Sunday in Finland's 3-2 overtime win over Sweden to capture the World Junior championship.

Rasmus Ristolainen scored at 9:42 of overtime to give Finland its third world junior hockey title.

"Nobody trusted us to win, but we trusted," said Teravainen, the Hawks' top prospect. "We knew we were going to be a good team and we had a chance to win this tournament. It's an awesome feeling right now."

Teravainen finished with 2 goals and 13 assists.

Canada lost to Russia on Sunday in the bronze-medal game. The United States, last year's winner, was eliminated Thursday with a 5-3 quarterfinal loss to Russia.

The Hawks drafted Teravainen 18th overall in 2012 when many considered him to have top-five talent. He is on he small side at 5-feet-11, 169 pounds, but as a center he is expected to challenge for a spot on the roster next season.

Teravainen is playing this season for Jokerit in the Finnish Elite League.

Looking Sharp:

Patrick Sharp was hoping to continue his torrid pace Sunday against the Sharks. In his previous six games, Sharp had 9 goals and 2 assists.

"I think I've felt like this a couple times in my career," he said. "It's the result of the good players I'm out there with making good plays, and all the hard work you put in as an individual. It's a good run for our team, it's a good run for me, and hopefully we can keep it going."

Work in progress:

Since allowing 2 power-play goals against Toronto on Dec. 14, the Hawks killed 26 of the next 29 penalties over the next nine games before facing San Jose on Sunday.

Hawks coach Joel Quenneville was quick to warn the stretch of good play did not mean the penalty-killing problems were solved.

"I know that we've had a nice stretch," Quenneville said. "We haven't taken many penalties, which helps. I think the movements have been better up ice and our entries are more predictable.

"I think we're getting a chance to get more pressure on their entries and clears and not letting them get set up. It's an ongoing challenge for us, but I've seen progress."

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